Social Media Sales Prospecting Beats Cold Calling, According to Forbes
Frank Rumbauskas — January 7, 2017 Follow @FrankRumbauskas— January 7, 2017
A study featured in Forbes magazine concluded that salespeople using social media to prospect vastly outsell those who cold call for new business.
Yep, it’s true. But it’s really no surprise, is it?
Here are the facts:
Social Media vs. Cold Calling Results:
– 78.6% of salespeople using social media out-perform those who aren’t
– Social media users exceed quota by 23% over social media non-users
– 40% of salespeople have closed deals via social media
And my favorite statistic of all in this report:
Salespeople using social media to sell spend less than 10% – that’s right, less than TEN PERCENT – of their time prospecting!
How much of their time do cold callers spend prospecting? That answer is easy:
Most of it!
And that’s the biggest flaw of cold calling of all: TIME.
“But cold calling works for me!”
I hear that one all the time. In a conversation I had with Jeffrey Gitomer a while back, he said that salespeople always tell him, “But I make a lot of money cold calling!”
His reply: “You and I have different definitions of the term ‘a lot.’”
Salespeople who think that cold calling “works” for them really don’t understand the value of their own time. Or, they place no value on their time at all.
Forget about the fact that 80% of decision makers surveyed said they’ll never buy from a cold call. Forget about the fact that technology is making cold calling damn near impossible nowadays.
Forget all that, and think about this: If you’re relying on cold calling for your sales leads, you are using up a HUGE, TREMENDOUS amount of your time to accomplish that!
The recent Baylor University study on cold calling concluded that it takes 7.5 HOURS of cold calling to get one – ONE! – truly qualified appointment.
Every morning, when I check my LinkedIn inbox and read messages from former cold callers, there are always at least a few who mention how much more free time they have in their lives, and how astounded they were to finally realize just how much time cold calling was costing them – and how draining it was both physically and mentally.
Think about this: If you can cut the time you now spend on sales prospecting in half, and spend the time saved face-to-face with hot, qualified prospects, just how much more would you sell? I’m willing to bet the number would astound you.
That’s what you can do by switching from cold calling to social media for prospecting.
And The Best News Of All….
The best, and most promising bit of data in the Forbes report, was this:
75% of salespeople who are succeeding with social media have had ZERO formal training on how to sell with social media!
That means you can really excel and destroy your competitors if 3 out of 4 have not made the effort to learn.
If they’re doing that well with no training on the subject, just think of what you could do if you made the effort to really learn the ins and outs of social media selling!
Learn how you can stop cold calling forever and become a sales rock star by downloading a 37-page PDF preview of the Never Cold Call Again System here.
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